Does making money get boring?
If only I can capture your reaction right now as you stare at the question again. I mean, who gets bored of making money?
Even the men who consistently show up on the “Forbes richest men in the world” list are still actively doing business and are doing their best possible to make sure their face appears in the list the following year. So who are you to get bored?
I’ll like you to look at this question again, but this time with an imagination that you’ve successfully built either companies, enterprises or businesses that consistently generate revenue and amass large amount of profit.
Why are you even reading about this when you’re not on that level yet? What even triggered me to write about this?
I’ve been reading the autobiography of Richard Branson titled “Losing my virginity” and at different points of the book I had to close it and think about why Richard took life threatening adventures periodically and why he wouldn’t just stick to the ventures that seemed profitable and just grow them.
Instead, he Richard is constantly searching for new adventures, pouring out his resources into these new adventures without a guaranty of their success. He failed in some, he won in some, and the moment he wins and is able to establish another subsidiary of Virgin, he hands it over to someone capable and he’s unto the next thing.
This piqued my curiosity and I couldn’t but ask, “Is money really the driving factor for Richard Branson?” There are times Richard and his colleagues would have to look for money frantically to achieve a venture they could have totally let go of.
Let me share an excerpt of the book with you from page 266 where he wanted to sign Janet Jackson to Virgin Music to prove that Virgin Music is the most sexy record label in the world.
“By now it was midmorning in London, almost lunchtime in Switzerland, and we had to have $11 million by close of business in Los Angeles.”
Sometimes, when I read the reasons behind Richard’s decision I wonder if it was worth it. But it is! If he had stuck to just one venture, I won’t have found the book intriguing would I?
Sometimes, you get caught in the cycle of working, making money, paying bills and starting all over again. Sometimes, you don’t get to do the things that make you happy neither the things you love.
For Richard, it’s:
- Crossing the Atlantic in an hot air balloon
- Challenging British Airways and existing protocols about the permission to use Heathrow
- Taking loans and seeking partnerships to salvage some subsidiaries of Virgin
For you, it might be something else. And don’t say there’s nothing, because there’s that something we all do that makes us forget the clock is even ticking.
Let me ask,
If you had all the money in the world, would you do the current job you’re doing at the moment?
Most times, we try to find a balance between what we love to do and what generates income for us. So I’ll share a link with you to watch a video from Chris Do on “how to find and do work you love” I hope it helps you.
Now that you’ve read up to the last paragraph, I hope you’ll have some rethink and maybe start doing things you love and things that make you happy.
